Everything Gilberto Salinas and Walt Ugalde said at Insights Unplugged

3 weeks ago 90

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – A number of news media outlets have asked the Rio Grande Guardian International News Service and/or the Greater Brownsville Incentives Corporation for a copy of the recent and much talked about “Insights Unplugged” session.

This was the session where GBIC CEO Gilberto Salinas said part of his focus now is on attracting companies that can help with the colonization of Mars. He mentioned this because the focus of the session was the development of commercial space ventures with some of the discussion centered on SpaceX’s plans to create a colony on Mars.

Salinas also spoke about some of the economic development projects GBIC is working on. He said the capital investment value of these projects is worth more than $300 million.

And Salinas spoke about a novel idea for the Rio Grande Valley – developing a talent attraction program to draw skilled workers TO the region.

Salinas was joined on the panel by Walt Ugalde, economic development lead for NASA Johnson Space Center’s T2X/T2U program. Ugalde suggested Brownsville could become the hub for nine Spanish-speaking countries that have signed NASA’s Artemis Accords.

The session was co-hosted by GBIC, UT-Rio Grande Valley, and the Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation and held at the eBridge Center for Business and Commercialization in downtown Brownsville.

The questions for Salinas and Ugalde were posed by Linda Ufland Romo, director of entrepreneurship, innovation and commercialization at UTRGV’s Entrepreneurship and Commercialization Center, and Nathan Burkhart, vice president of entrepreneurship and innovation for Brownsville Community Improvement Corporation. Salinas and Ugalde also took questions from the audience.

Here, for the news media outlets that could not attend, as well as the thousands of South Texas residents interested in commercial space projects and economic development issues, is a video recording of the session in full: